GM Riatin's Rise of the Runelords

Game Master riatin

Is it worthwhile for me to cast bless on the group before the next combat?

It seems a bit mediocre, maybe better if I just save the spell slots for healing.

Oh, and another question, I read that it is better to use wands to heal people than to waste spells, assuming I even have enough cash to buy a wand, is that what I should do?

A Wand of Cure Light Wounds is absolutely one of the most convenient 'money-to-healing' ratio you can find, and if used between fights it's also quite efficient, especially at lower levels.

My personal 2 cents on the matter:
Since that's an item that is going to be used by the whole party (actually, on the whole party! ^_^), I'd propose we all 'split the bill' and pay 1/4 of the wand. That's something I did with previous groups over the years (share 'party expenses'), and it usually worked pretty well! ^_^

A lot of groups will pool their gold early on to purchase a wand of cure light wounds because they cost 750 gp, more than most adventurers run into early on.

Gold wise, wands of CLW are the most efficient and will for a while allow you to use your spells for other things which is nice. If Dave (T) is still planning to join us clerics have better group healing options (channel energy) which can heal the entire party at once while conserving spells. If he isn't able to then I would suggest it as a group expenditure.

Around 6th level you start going through CLW wands very quickly as you heal your party and Cure Moderate becomes more desirable, but its not nearly as efficient.

Anecdotally, I recently had to heal a party of 12th level adventurers with my ninja using a CLW wand (we rarely have a cleric in the group) and I think we burned through 40 charges for 1 fight. It was meant just for her.

Also, witches have some healing options as well, the cure spells are on their spell list and there are healing hex options too. I'm not advocating a specific approach to the problem, just supplying information so you can make informed decisions.

I also forgot that bards have the cure line of spells on their spell list as well, so you guys are well setup to take healing options or use wands without need for Use Magic Device.

So, for bless it says we get a +1 morale bonus, the word morale is confusing me, does it mean we add +1 to hit or that we have less chance of turning and running?

Also, I get how I can make a typo, but how in the world did I type 'one' instead of 'won'?

"(Not the one he one in the Lighthouse game!)"

In pathfinder there are distinct bonus types to determine certain effects stack or not. Here's a table with the bonus types: Bonus

There is an additional one called an untyped bonus. Untyped and Dodge bonuses always stack with all other bonuses.

From Bless, you gain a +1 to hitting your enemies with attacks and a +1 to any saving throw that has a fear effect (like if someone cast Cause Fear at you, or a dragon's fear aura).

Morale - Attacks, checks, damage, saves, Str, Con, Dex

Does that mean it helps me hit and helps me damage?

Does it increase my STR, CON and DEX?

It means that those bonuses can effect those stats.

For example a resistance bonus can give you a bonus to a save, your Will save for instance, but it can't give you a bonus to your Strength score.

A morale bonus can only give a bonus to those stats in the 'Can Effect' column of that table. It's not saying that it effects all of them.

Hope this is making some kind of sense. :)

Oh, I see, so this particular morale bonus (Bless) affects attack rolls, but a different morale bonus could affect one of the other stats.

Yep, that's it exactly.

Thanksgiving is of course tomorrow, and I assume most of you will probably be busy with family and events so dont worry if you can't get the time to post anything.

If everyone's able to find time to post we'll keep it going as is, but from tonight till Monday dont feel like you have an obligation to post.

I would tell Riatin to act for me cause I will be on my way to and from work for the next 11 or so hours, but I have no idea what I am going to do until after the other three goblins act. Crossing my fingers that Garrock is still standing!

If I try to cast Cure light wounds on him will it provoke attacks of opportunity?

Off to work!

My mom and the in-laws will be here tonight through Sunday, but I should still be able to check in regularly - maybe not as much on Friday, but I'll be looking when I can for sure.

Things certainly got more "interesting" for Garrok - seriously, even if I hadn't lowered his AC by like 4, those would've been ugly hits. And I don't know if it was intentional or not, but you fudged the damage a little bit and I appreciate that - it's the only reason he's not unconscious now - consider it a valuable lesson learned if he gets out of this alive.

Hey - can you still do AOO while fighting defensively? I don't see anything that says you can't, but want to be sure before I commit to my next round.

Thunder, if you move up behind him out of threat range from the goblin (5 ft circle around him and the goblin dog, you'll be fine).

When you are in a threatened area and try to cast a spell you have the option to cast defensively which is a concentration check (yours should be +4) versus a DC of 15. If you fail that check you take an Attack of opportunity, so its usually much safer to cast spells out of threat range.

Have to go over to the girlfriends tonight, then have the family coming in tomorrow but that won't slow me down much, I can always sneak off.

Rei, no damage fudging here man, you took what they have (and I'm very glad you're still up as well). And don't forget orc ferocity.

You should be able to take an AoO while fighting defensively, most of the time being flat footed would be the only reason you couldn't.

Oh, I'm not forgetting ferocity, believe me - I'm just hoping I don't have to use it! :)

At my own peril, I ask: Does the goblin dog's bite attack not crit? He rolled a natural 20, so I expected to see confirmation and additional damage rolls.

Also, I did read up on temporary hit points - as I understand it, when I stop Garrok's Rage, that doesn't subtract 2HP from whatever he's got left, right? Those extra 2 HP were just the first to go when he got hit and left me with a little padding on my "real" HP.

Thanks again for explaining stuff!

Ha! I did totally overlook the 20. Oh well, count it as being lucky :)

Just for the hell of it confirmation roll: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

and whiff, it wasn't a crit anyway.

Raging is pretty deadly when you get low or drop unconscious. The bonus hit points provided by rage are not temporary hit points, they're from the stat increase to Constitution, so when you lose rage, you lose the stat increase and you lose the bonus HP. High level barbarians can loose a lot of hit points when they get knocked unconscious or hit 0. So keep that in mind. Orcs are in a bit better position having ferocity, but its still very very dangerous.

In 3.5 the hit points were temporary, but with pathfinder they brought back the deadly aspect like in 2nd edition.

If worst comes to worst, both Katarina and Hieronymous can Stabilize Garrok, and (much more importantly) Hieronymous still has a few Cure Light Wounds available.

So don't worry, ye ain't gonna die on us! ^_^

Also, happy Thanksgiving people! Please eat a few slices of turkey for us old-Continent folks too! ^_^

Thanks Katarina, you can eat some turkey too if you want... but it is a bit of a pain to cook, especially if there isn't a compelling reason to do so.

I am glad Garrockmal was still standing, I was thinking of casting Obscuring Mist and telling everyone to run and hide! Then maybe try to sneak back and stabilize him, I guess, glad it didn't come to that.

Happy Thanksgiving friends :) I thought I posted that earlier, but its been a busy day. Hope your holiday is a good one.

Yeah, thanks all... Whatever your nationality or culinary preferences, I hope you have a great day!

Oh, and Thunder - may I suggest adding a "just in case AOO" roll to your actions - since you're Enlarged, you'll find you can use them a lot (I just noticed the goblin to your upper left is in threat range - if he tries any standard movement, you'll be able to attack).

Thanks for that heal; sorry you had to spend a turn looking out for me instead of kicking goblin ass! :]

Huh, for some reason I saw Katarina cast enlarge on Garrock both times, but sure enough, now I look back and I have been enlarged the whole time.

I must look awesome, you'd think these silly goblins would just run from us!

Thanks Rei, you seem better equipped to do damage than I, it would be silly not to keep you standing any way I can! Good luck on your next swing!

Happy Turkey Day, y'all!

I tell you what I'm thankful for... this most exciting beginning to our adventure. And a healer (or at least someone who can heal).

Have a fantastic day everyone.

I spent my day cleaning the house and hanging Christmas lights, now it's time to enjoy the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Not so sure about when these attacks of opportunity happen, do I have to announce that I am doing one, or have there been no opportunities (like maybe when the goblin moved to attack Katarina or Caine?, or when the other one moved to attack kick it's buddy in the head?)?

Without overcomplicating too much the issue (let's not consider special instances, talents, skills and the like for now), every time a creature EXITS a threatened square, it provokes an Attack of Opportunity from whoever it was that threatened that square.

If multiple creatures (let's call them c2, c3, c4) threaten the same square and one creature (creature c1) exits it, or simply during its movement c1 enters and then exits squares threatened by other creatures, then c1 provokes that many AoOs (and will probably die... 3 AoOs in the face? That's gonna hurt!).

Normally, every creature it's entitled to only ONE AoO per turn (if you want to be able to take more, you probably need Combat Reflexes). Also, whatever the case, even if you are able to take more than one AoO in a turn, you can't attack a specific creature with more than a single AoO in a given turn. So if that creature was so careless to provoke more than once from you in a single turn, you can only punish it once!).

If you are entitled to multiple AoOs (possibly because two different creatures provoked two different AoOs from you in the same round), you can choose which one to take, if any (you are always free not to take any AoOs you are entitled, for whatever reason... Not that that's something that happens often! O.o').

Certain action are special and never provoke an AoO, even if the general rule says so (that's a very important concept in pathfinder, and D&D in general = Specific Rule ALWAYS tramples Generic Rule). That's the case for the 5-Foot-Step action.

So, in the two cases at hand:

like maybe when the goblin moved to attack Katarina or Caine?

That little sack of p-... Ehm... The goblin took a 5-Foot-Step, so by definition it doesn't provoke an AoO.

or when the other one moved to attack kick it's buddy in the head?

That's a little trickier. First, we need to look at the wording of the Slumber Hex Katarina did cast on the goblin. In the text, it says it affects creatures like the Sleep Spell. Reading Sleep we see that awakening a creature it's a use of the Aid Another action. Aid Another has multiple uses, and by the rules: "If you aid someone performing an action that would normally provoke an attack of opportunity, then the act of aiding another provokes an attack of opportunity as well".

It's not really specified if... Uh... Kicking someone asleep in the face it's "an action that would normally provoke an attack of opportunity", so the GM has to make a call.

Now this is just my opinion, but since kicking an ally is something akin to attacking someone (and actually requiring much less attention, and involving no danger per se), I would rule it doesn't provoke an AoO.
(also, metagaming a bit, if awakening someone from Sleep provoked, they would have probably said so in the spell description!).

That's pretty much it for the basics! Hope this helped some. If you have question feel free to ask! ^_^

Wow, that was remarkably thorough! I was just going to refer to the "actions in combat" table here.

That's what I've been looking at to determine what will or won't provoke (or allow) an AoO. It's only because of that table that I thought to take my 5-ft step before performing the coup de grace in the last round.

Edit: oh, hey, also Thunder: read up on Enlarge Person, particularly the table on weapon damage - you're still rolling 1d8 damage for your heavy mace when you should be rolling 2d6... Your damage rolls are also labeled Perception, but that's just cosmetic. :)

Edit edit: hey, question on movement - can we pass through each other's squares? What about partially? I'm wondering if I can 5-ft step directly northwest, where the lower left corner of my area would pass through the upper right corner of Thunder's.

I usually go with this section of sleep for waking someone up: Slapping or wounding awakens an affected creature. I debated whether the goblins were smart enough to even know to wake one another up, but in the end it gained them no real advantage in the fight other than possibly denying another coup de grace. I see pathfinder goblins as more homicidal version of the minions from Despicable Me anyhow so one kicking another played right along with how I see them.

And definitely color me impressed with the game rule knowledge. But I also want to point out that the part about only being able to take one attack of opportunity per round per person is not entirely correct. Is that possibly a house rule that you use? For reference I'll quote the pertinent section of the pfsrd:

Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity

If you have the Combat Reflexes feat, you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn't count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal attack bonus.

You've been delightfully on the money with every other rule and I'm very guilty of forgetting certain rules that have been replaced by house rules or forgetting rules altogether, so I need someone to keep me honest so to speak. :)

As for moving through allies' squares, I'm not sure what the core rulebook says, but I've never had a problem with it. The one specific note where it says its an issue is in the case of charge and I understand that, running through where someone is standing can be potentially disastrous especially if they're both holding 3 feet of sharpened steel. Something to avoid at all costs.

Is that possibly a house rule that you use?

Damn... Yes, yes it was.

Now that I think about it, I can even remember when we established that one. The group before the last I played with, we had a character focused ONLY on making enemies provoke AoOs and take as many as possible. In the end it got so bad a few almost-BBEGs literally died in the very first round of what should have been an epic fight... Then we decided to put a stop to the madness! O.o'

And this is why I'm usually on the fence on answering questions about rules... I've got so many house rules from so many groups over so many years concerning so many different game systems swarming my head, at times I can't tell house rule and official rule apart! -.-'

Sorry about that people, I'll try to be more careful in the future. :(

Wow, thanks for all of that, even the extra house rule thrown in for fun!

It makes more sense to me now, I really appreciate all of you taking the time to fill me in.

I thought enlarge possibly increasing my damage, but then when it came to my turn I completely forgot. Also, I probably need to pay a bit more attention before I hit submit post, my damage rolls do look odd (of course, if I never hit anything, I guess it won't matter...).

Now that I think about it, I can even remember when we established that one. The group before the last I played with, we had a character focused ONLY on making enemies provoke AoOs and take as many as possible. In the end it got so bad a few almost-BBEGs literally died in the very first round of what should have been an epic fight... Then we decided to put a stop to the madness! O.o'

Robilar's Gambit/Come and get me?

I'm similar in that I have many years worth of house rules rattling around in my brain I have to go back and reread the actual rules quite often.

What's the speed factor on a two handed sword again? ...oh, we don't use speed factors or two handed swords anymore? Crap.

Not sure if I missed something, did we kill the mounted goblin?

Not sure if I missed something, did we kill the mounted goblin?

No, he's still pinned; I'm standing in place waiting to AOO his tiny green ass when he stands. :)

Edit: Oh, I looked at this thread before gameplay... Yeah, Riatin - the mounted guy is still struggling in goblin dog blood!

Edit Edit: Reading comprehension FTW! Looks like Garrok AOO'd him while he was struggling. Trying to do too many things at once right now, not reading fully. =\

My description was probably bit lackluster as well. Early Monday morning for ya.

So yeah, since there was nothing else around and your AoO would have hit, I just went ahead and had it hit. You normally dont provoke from trying to escape a grapple, but you provoke when standing up from prone, so I just combined the two to keep things going.

Oh, I see it now! It was definitely there, I too have reading comprehension issues, could probably use some new glasses as well.

Oh, and that combat was intense at first, when Garrockmal took that first hit I thought we were all going to wake up in the local infirmary, or worse. Fun stuff!

I know a few of you have links to some NPC's in your backstories that aren't part of the main storyline (ie Gurdan for thunder, or Garrok's adopted family, etc.). If you have a description of this NPC/'s in mind just drop one in here. It can be as simple or as complex as you like and a link to a picture wouldn't hurt either, if you have something strongly pictured.

If you dont have anything specific in mind and you just want me to explore my creative (or not so creative) side, then just let me know that as well.

I hadn't really put a lot of thought into Garrok's parents, except that they're Varisian (because that's in the Feat - otherwise, I kind of threw out a lot of that Feat's background and subbed in my own version)... My idea being that Garrok is now living independently. So if you want to come up with some story-appropriate tie-ins for his parents, that's totally cool with me.

Having lived in town for the last 15 years (roughly), I was thinking he'd have gotten to know a handful of people better than others. One of the first issues of the Pathfinder comic book has that Sandpoint map and list of characters you posted, so when building his character, I'd used that to (very loosely) come up with this list of people he knows. I assume that more people in town know who he is than he knows them, since half orcs are rare.

Cool, nice info. If you don't have a real use or dont require interaction with a given NPC in your backstory that's perfectly okay as well. Not everyone has to be on-stage so to speak.

For the purposes of "shopping research" - is there a limit to what Savah has in her shop, or can I assume if it's in the gear lists I could buy it from her? And she is just armor, right - no weapons?

Hey people! We just survived three fights, back to back! That's actually a pretty big deal, especially at low levels.

Yep, that's no denying it, we kick a@@! xD

And please let me say this: over the years I've played with a lot of new players, and believe me, you were all amazing! Interesting characters, awesome roleplay, lightning-fast grasp on new rules, and no one lost his cool when the party was taking a beating (The things I saw "mature adults" do when their brand new character took the first hit... You wouldn't believe!). You are all great (GM included!), keep it up guys! ^_^

Thanks Katarina, you've been awesome as well, don't worry about putting too much in your posts, good stuff. This is a lot of fun.

Riatin, that guy Gurdan I made up, I had no real plan for him but it seemed like Hieronymous would want to check on him, I pictured him as an older guy, maybe in his 60's who walks with a limp he got while escaping the giants that wiped out our village. Feel free to do whatever you want with him.

Ha, nice! Coming from someone who obviously knows what she's talking about, that means a lot. Going back to our prior association again, I think Thunder and Riatin (when not GM) and I are pretty hard to rattle in situations like these - we spent years overcoming (and wiping hard) on challenges like this together, so we feel pretty confident in each other's company. At least, that's how I feel. Yeah, I almost got one-shot, but I knew my team wouldn't let me down. And Zaf, well, he's hardly roleplaying at all; he's just as funny (and almost as short) IRL. :P

Oh, I'm gonna pay for that one at work tomorrow...

Reitoei, I'd be upset with that remark if it wasn't close to the truth. I'm really enjoying my first play by post campaign. Thanks for being a fun (and knowledgable) group!

Wanted to make a post but had to finish working and I'm exhausted right now (it's almost 5 in the morning here O.o). Promise I'll do it as soon as I can tomorrow morning!... Er, make that early afternoon probably. ^_^

Wanted to make a post but had to finish working and I'm exhausted right now (it's almost 5 in the morning here O.o). Promise I'll do it as soon as I can tomorrow morning!... Er, make that early afternoon probably. ^_^

I've noticed your strange schedule; you keep odd hours! No rush, anyway. Don't sweat it, get some rest. Your character isn't the only one that needs healing!

Yeah, no rush here, take your time Katarina!

Speaking of time, I am going to be away for longer tonight, 'tis the season for after work parties, so feel free to consider me along for the ride if I don't post til later tomorrow morning.

Huh, I'll be drinking beer at a bar while Hieronymous is doing the same, but instead of goblins I'll have to spend all day in a cubicle and fight traffic to get there...

So our cable/internet is out, and I was feeling creatively stumped on another painting project I'm working on, so I reached into my bag of Bones miniatures to paint one at random, and it happened to be an Orc barbarian-type. I finished it a few minutes ago and thought it would be fun to share here, just for kicks.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w3mshutxbhup2z0/Photo%20Dec%2007%2C%207%2055%2054 %20PM.jpg

Nice, looks like he may have stabbed some red paint though. My painting endeavors usually end up looking pretty awful.

Wow, looks nice Rei, I did a little bit of miniature painting back when I used to play, none of them ever turn out that nice looking, impressive.

When you say painting project, is that another miniature or something else?

Thanks, Thunder. The other project is for my boardgamegeek.com secret Santa target... I got him a copy of Tzolk'in and I'm painting the gears. If none of this means anything to you, this is what my copy of the game looks like. Those gears come in the box as putty-colored plastic. I decided to do his calendar wheel in a different style from the one I did for myself, and I've kind of painted myself into a creative corner, pardon the pun.

I was pawing through my bag of Bones again and came across a mini that may be a good stand-in for Hieronymous, though. Maybe I'll try some new techniques on him.

@Riatin - I was thinking the blood might be a bit much, but I haven't had a lot of opportunities to use this awesome specialty paint for blood effects, so I went ahead and did it, picturing in my head Garrok stand ing in the middle of those three goblins and the mount, heehee.

Speaking of - what's going on in the rusty dragon? As a bit of a newbie, I must admit to feeling a bit at loose ends in moments like this - am I supposed to just keep up idle conversation, or do I need to engage someone specific, or what. If any of our more experiences players want to give a nudge in the right direction, that could be helpful.